From the Bottom, to the Top
by Teru9133
Summary: There are some who disappear into the night from our world, usually never to be seen again. Sometimes they leave alone, and other times, others vanish along with them. Our world is powerless to stop it since time immemorial, crafting legends of people being taken away by "gods" or "evil spirits". However, we follow one of the kidnapped... To a world similar to our beloved Terraria!
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

The sun was right over the meadow, directly casting its rays down onto the grass below it, the trees swayed gently in the breeze, and the critters bounced around, innocently, and without a care or coherence to the way they went about. One of these critters, a bunny, hopped over to a particular spot, and being curious, it put its whiskers on the face of the man lying on the ground, eyes closed, and in a green t-shirt and blue jeans, with his blonde hair resting on his head and grass. After a few moments of the bunny probing the face, the man opened his eyelids, exposing crystal blue eyes, appearing as if he was bewildered; and this is exactly what he was. The man sat up with a start, scaring the bunny away and going back along with the rest of the critters, but the man sat there almost like a statue, hands firmly pressed into the ground, supporting him up as he was turning his head around, looking around the environment that he was in.

… _Where is this?_ The man pondered to himself this question, having satisfied himself with a huge sweep of the area, and now looking at the trees that seemed to surround him and the meadow in an absurd amount. The clouds in the sky lazily went above him, and off out of view, before a rustle could be heard near the man. With this sound, he immediately stood up and readied his fists, the meadow was surrounded by relatively tall shrubbery, so he actually couldn't see what it was that was making its way through said shrubbery.

"W-Who's there?!" The man casted his blue eyes back and forth in the general direction the rustling was coming from as it progressively got louder and louder.

Eventually, another man in a grey shirt and blue jeans made his appearance out of the shrubs, almost as though he was a submarine resurfacing from the ocean, and with this, for some reason, the man in the middle of the meadow relaxed from his stance and only looked with suspicion and some guard up.

"…Who are you?" The man in the middle of the meadow asked this question, and the other man smiled.

"Well, I'm Andrew: Your Guide."

The man in the meadow looked a little complacent as he replied, "Oh, Andrew…" After a few moments, however, the man shook his head slightly and hastily cried out, "Wait, my guide!?"

Andrew nodded his head, "Yep! The one and only!"

The man in the meadow looked with even more suspicion raised for Andrew, and pondered a moment before asking, "What are you my 'guide' for…?" The man felt as though this was strikingly familiar to him, though he didn't yet know why.

"Well, I'm your guide for a lot of things: I can tell you about the biomes around here, I can tell you about the plants, the creatures, the tools you can make out of what's around here, so on and so forth."

The man kept his guard up, but now he had turned away to think about what Andrew just said.

 _Did I decide to go on a nature trip with Jen, and I somehow fell asleep, forgetting about the whole process leading up to that point? Not like it hasn't happened before but…_

The man would have kept thinking, had Andrew not interrupted him, "And, um, usually it's common courtesy to give the person who gave their name out, yours as well."

"Oh, sorry, I was drowned in thoughts there that I forgot my manners; I'm Brian. Brian…"

Brian widened his eyes, wondering why he couldn't remember his last name. _What was my last name…?_

"Brian! What an excellent name! I believe we have someone by that name as well! Well, it's just so splendid to have you here now, Brian! We were really in need of help now, but fortunately, almost miraculously, you showed up right then and there!"

Brian then held up his hand to motion Andrew to stop, and even asked him to wait, "Wait… What do you need me help with… Exactly?"

 _Somehow, something is starting to seem really odd about this._

"Well, you see, we have a bit of an 'infestation', and it's been uh, 'corrupting' the area, if you will," Andrew said the last part almost as if it was a pun, and at this point, Brian started piecing together what was happening now.

 _Not knowing how I got here… A guide showing up out of nowhere… A nice field of grass and almost an infinite number of trees… His name's even Andrew!_

Brian, realizing he had looked away for a moment and towards the ground, immediately looked back up to Andrew and quietly spoke, "So… What's my first objective as of now?"

Andrew frowned slightly, "That's odd… Didn't think you'd word it like that. Well, you just have to build a house for the night for now."

Brian's eyes widened, and rashly asked, "So this _**is**_ Terraria, then!?"

Andrew titled his head sideways slightly, "What's that?"

Brian almost turned his mouth inside out from the force of shutting it closed and making something akin to a sour face from the wince he had in that moment, _Okay… maybe it was a bit sudden to jump to that conclusion… We could be making a makeshift base of operations is what he meant._

"Erm, never mind that… So I just need to build a house right? Will you help me out?"

Andrew shook his head, and turned over his backpack, pulling an empty one out of it and handing it over to Brian, at which, Andrew spoke, "Well, I'm not going to really help you directly, since I don't have the strength for it, so I'm kind of hoping you do. If you look in the backpack, you should have an axe somewhere in there."

Brian briefly had the thought that this could be his "inventory" and quickly opened it, only to see an orange axe, what's more, it was only the metal that was orange; the rest was wooden. He frowned momentarily, but shook his head of such childish thoughts as "this is terraria". After all, it had been years since he played the game.

Grabbing the axe from the backpack, Brian immediately felt how light it was, which took him slightly by surprise, and decided to ask Andrew what was okay and not okay.

"Well, you're the guy with the axe, so I can't really say that I should be telling you what you can or can't do. But I do suggest we make the house here, so maybe by cutting these trees around us, while getting these shrubs out of the way, we can kill two birds with one stone with that, how about it?"

 _Well, this is one very friendly guide, that's for sure._

"Sure, let's get to it then."

Brian immediately went to work hacking away the shrubs, which all disappeared relatively easy, then he went on to knock out the trees lining around the meadow.


	2. Chapter 2: Infestation

Night had fallen, and much to Brian's complicated feelings of surprised, disappointment, and somewhat realistic expectations: trees actually felled like regular trees, though they were easy to hack into blocks; then there was the fact that even though it was dusk, nothing like monsters were out at this moment, and there had been no slimes whatsoever. Brian was thinking about lighting inside the house, but by the time it was built, surprisingly with the help of Andrew, Andrew had already placed torches, that seemed to come from nowhere, inside, with a table and two chairs; a couple of beds to boot. Even Brian was impressed by the preparedness of Andrew in this.

"Well, I actually kind of like this house."

Andrew chuckled, "Well, sure. You're the one that mostly made it after all."

Brian gave a somewhat cold stare to Andrew and asked in a similar manner, "What are you trying to say?"

Andrew put up his hands in a defensive manner and smiled, "I was kidding! Just kidding!"

Brian sighed slightly but then smiled faintly. _If this really is the game, this Guide is already so much better than they were in the game…_

"Anyways, now that the house has been built, we can worry about other things, like the infestation to the North."

"Right. The infestation. What can you tell me about it?"

Andrew sighed as he sprawled out a map before Brian on the table, showing him a map of a place Brian had never seen before, a continent that was certainly nowhere on Earth.

 _Maybe it's just an island?_

"Well, the only things I _can_ tell you about it is that I would highly recommend not going there for now, since we have the worst possible equipment for it right now. I have a sword and a hammer as well, but they're like weak, and the reports we've gotten about the infestation… Well, let's just say that I'm expecting that anything there will not be anything that you've ever seen before."

Brian gulped a little, wondering to himself that if this really was the real world, how the hell did he get into this job, to this extent, and not even remember a single thing. _At this point… Thinking all of this was somehow Terraria would probably make more sense…_

"Well, have you seen it for yourself?"

Andrew shook his head, "Like I said, all of these things are from reports, but… I already know the infestation has progressed to a very critical state… Maybe we really should let you have a see for yourself. I'll even go and see it for myself as well."

Brian frowned to himself, _Guides always stayed at the house, or spawn point, right? Maybe it's just the game turning into some sort of reality that's changed it? I mean just look at the three dimensional aspect alone…_

Brian nodded and agreed to checking out the infestation. And with that, the duo headed out, once it was morning, towards the north.

On the walk there, Brian took note of the biomes changing from the forest to a sort of snow biome. _So even this is similar…_ Through the snowy fields, trees were sparse, and critters even sparser. The duo waded through the snow, and all this while, Brian was inquiring about the infestation.

At this point, he was almost dead certain they were in some sort of reality that was either exactly like Terraria, or was extremely similar. However, the issue at the moment was figuring out if Andrew was talking about Corruption or Crimson, as the way he's called it an infestation didn't confirm it either way, though by right, it was safe to assume Corruption.

Brian sighed, _if only I had spent more time in worlds with Crimson…_

"Well… there it is."

Andrew had gone up a small hill, just a bit ahead of Brian, who was just cresting the hill as Andrew finished saying that. Once his eyes could lay on the area ahead of him, they widened in shock and disbelief.

The area in front of him could easily be described as another realm, another world. The ground was sickly, with no grass, and whatever grass there was, it was dead, black, or in the process of becoming both. The trees seemed to have been consumed by this otherworldliness and had turned in a fashion of decay, but they still seemed as though they were firmly alive. Just up ahead, not much further, Brian could see a deep schism in the ground that ran below what he could see, but he knew what this all was.

It was Corruption. The realm of decay and disease, and also the first "evil" the game had thrown at him all those years ago when he first played.

Almost immediately, Brian turned to Andrew and spoke with haste, "Alright, let's go, we've seen it."

"But… We just got here. I want to see for my own eyes what the report said about 'floating creatures'."

Brian's face paled, "We need to _seriously_ go, now!"

At the last word he spoke, he heard that familiar sound of the creatures rising out of the schism he saw not too long ago, and watched as those disgusting Eater of Souls floated towards them, now seeing them in full view, eyes atop their tan-ish bodies, their pincers gaping open, and inside…

Andrew then immediately said, "Yeah… I think you're right."

With that, the two ran as fast as they could away from the Eater of Souls, but much to Brian's expectations, albeit a lot of dismay synced, the creatures were catching up to them. Entering back into the snow biome, Brian immediately cried out to Andrew, "You have that sword right?!"

"I do, but I already told you, it won't be enough to stop those… things!"

"I don't care, just give me the damn sword!"

Hearing the Eater of Souls purring with the vile sounds that they made, Brian's spine just about near crawled out of him as he felt the goosebumps erupt on his skin.

"NOW!"

Finally, Andrew managed to get his backpack off while running away, and tossed the orange sword towards Brian, who caught it, nearly dropping it. Quickly gasping from shock then relief, Brian quickly looked over the sword.

 _A copper short sword… Oh, so NOW this world goes with the way that Terraria does…_

Then it occurred to him he would only have a short reach, but he had full control of his body, therefore he should be able to swing the short sword like a broadsword, which was the only downfall of a short sword in his opinion.

Turning around, Brian readied into a stance, the sword held out like an actual sized sword, feeling absurdly light in his hands, giving him the feeling it would bend if he used it on the Eater of Souls that were now coming towards him at relatively high speeds. Andrew stopped as well, but naturally some ways ahead of Brian.

Brian took a deep breath, and shook off the feeling that it'd bend like a piece of wet paper against the skin of the Eaters, and observed that there were two of them. He waited for the first one to come closer.

 _Closer… Closer… There!_

Brian lunged, attempting to get the biggest reach he could with the sword, feeling all of his strength going into that one lunge. With this Brian felt that maybe it could work!

"Pbbblt," along with the sound of a raspberry tongue, Brian realized that the sword had actually bent against the skin of the Eater of Souls, and realized that the thing had almost gotten him within his pincers.

If it wasn't for Andrew, that is.

Andrew saw that Brian was going to go for a lunge and had already ran closer to get Brian out of the way, which he succeeded in doing.

Brian, almost delirious, just realized that the sword he thought wouldn't bend, actually did, and now he was running in true fear of being eaten by one of the creatures that were still floating as fast as the duo could run. Finally, the snow biome had changed into the forest, and with that, the duo's running speed increased without having to wade, and the Eaters started to slowly lose distance against them, and eventually, howled with their disgusting roar, and floated back towards the Corruption. When Brian and Andrew saw this, they immediately sat down and gasped for air.

"What… What made you think that copper sword would even do anything?!"

Brian gasped for some more air before replying in defense, "Well… I thought a sword was still a sword."

"No! That was supposed to be at least decent for us to use against the forest creatures that wanted to attack us!"

"Forest creatures?" For a moment, Brian forgot that slimes did pose a threat to them at this level still, not to mention the sun just starting to set.

With this, Brian groaned, with volume growing, and eventually he finally screamed and shouted, "Why did it have to turn out like this!?"


	3. Chapter 3: Preparations

The second night had fallen pretty quickly after the duo's escape from the Eater of Souls' grasp. This time around, Brian could hear zombies wandering around outside of the house.

 _Thankfully we built the house…_

Brian groaned as he flopped around on his bed, and with that, Andrew looked at him with slight embarrassment, "Why are you acting like a child right now?"

Brian ignored Andrew for the moment as he was in deep thought. He had returned to the land that he had spent so many hours, no, days, if not even weeks or months into. He only left frankly because his life had gotten busier with a job and college. But even so, after the few years he had left the game, he still remembered it like it was yesterday.

Well, remembered most things, anyways. And it's not like it would have completely helped him with the ordeal at hand, as he just watched the most basic sword in the game bend like it was a French fry against the skin of an Eater of Soul earlier in the day. If that was the case, tin and wood would be useless, bending and snapping in half respectively.

With that, Brian groaned once again, gaining an agitated stare from Andrew, but this time, Brian asked, "So what would be strong enough to take on those Eater of Souls…?"

"The 'what'?"

Brian winced as he forgot Andrew wasn't part of the game, and that was just the name he was used to calling them, "Erm, the things that bent the sword easily?"

Andrew was momentarily at a loss of words, "You already have a name for those guys? I actually like the names but…"

Brian almost had to laugh at that. _Well of course, you're the one that would have told me what they were if it was the game._ But he maintained his composure and got up from his bed and asked again, "Yeah, so what would be strong enough?"

Andrew pondered on this for a moment, and snapped his fingers, "I think an iron or lead sword would be strong enough to fight those things, but I personally would get a silver sword to play it safe."

Brian thought about this for a moment, and then asked after thinking about something, "Wait, there's iron _and_ lead?"

Andrew looked at Brian like he had just walked in naked, "Yeah. Why wouldn't there be?"

"I see…" Brian ignored the expression on Andrew's face and thought about it for a second, considering that if the most basic metals, setting aside the worthless copper and tin, to mine had both counterparts in this reality, then it couldn't be much of a far stretch to say that all gems are here, as well as all "hard mode" metals.

Before going any further, Brian stopped thinking about it and then asked, "So, do you by chance have a copper pickaxe?"

Andrew responded with slight delight, "I do, actually! Here you go. Try not to, uh, bend it, yeah?"

Brian rolled his eyes at the advice and took the pickaxe. Just like the other tools he had before, this one felt extremely light. But unlike the sword, it felt extremely durable.

Brian gripped the handle tightly, and looked outside. It was still night.

"Yeah, I don't think you should go out right now. Considering the zombies outside right now."

Brian nodded with a tinge of resignation, and also a bit of the fatigue that was now catching up to him. As he was getting into his bed, he muttered to himself.

"Just don't open the door for the zombies, damn Guide…"


	4. Chapter 4: Mining

Once daybreak had hit, Brian woke up and had already begun his mining operation. Fortunately for him, he still had yet to solidify what was still in accordance to the game, and what was not. In other words, while the sword bent on him against the Eater, mining felt like he had a massive scoop, and just eating away the ground he was mining at, which made it ridiculously easy to plow through the top layer of dirt, and already heading towards the rock part of the world. This much was still the same as the game.

Of course, this was after Brian had no luck with finding any cave openings in the immediate proximity of the house's location. Brian thought it best otherwise to just mine until he hit a cave below, or maybe until he hit enough iron or lead to call it for the day. Just prior to his mining operation, he had already gather an immeasurable amount of wood, made a work bench, and had slaughtered a fair amount of slimes to make torches. In truth, he only needed to kill maybe two or three slimes, as unlike the game, he could just utilize all of the slime that was, well, "killed". Eventually, he had enough torches to feel comfortable leaving a trail for him to follow back if he ever found a cavern on this expedition, like a breadcrumb trail.

Brian sighed as he made it far enough down that when he looked back at the entrance of the mine, he could barely see a dot of light that was sunlight filtering in. He glanced over the materials he had gather thus far, coming across what could be about 60 "blocks" of stone, maybe even more; he had also gathered more than a dozen "ores" of copper and tin. But in terms of iron, he gathered less than a dozen, and for lead, even less. Brian slumped his shoulders in a minor defeat in this bout, but straightened himself again in an effort to find more metals to smelt and create tools to better his position here.

As he mined, he thought to himself the situation he was now placed in. The last thing he remembered was going to sleep in his old apartment after a relatively average day of work. The next thing he knew, he felt whiskers on his face, and opened his eyes in a completely new world with the first sight being a bunny. The first thing he felt was what bewildered him however, not the environment around him. What bewildered him was that the moment he opened his eyes, he had already accepted everything that was happening. It was almost like inside his mind somewhere, he _knew_ he wasn't insane, or that this was dream. Everything right here and right now was _real_ , even though it resembled the beloved game of his.

And then going past that, is he the only one in this world that came from his? He was firmly aware that the NPCs would be at the very least, as vibrant as Andrew is, and thus, he can consider them actually humans. So being the only "human" wasn't a concern anymore, just if there were others like him in that they came from his world.

And how would he come back to his original world? It's not that he wanted to leave right this moment, but he honestly wanted to at least be prepared on his terms in coming back to this world, if he absolutely had to. Then this brought back up the "hard mode" of Terraria. How far will he go? Will he summon the Wall of Flesh and defeat it so as to progress further into the rest of the world, and eventually stand against the Moon Lord?

The very thought sent shudders down Brian's spine, enough for him to have to momentarily stop mining.

Did he have to beat the Moon Lord in order to actually get back home? It's been years since he's played the game, was this… reality, the same "version" that he last played or would there be more things that he wouldn't be able to even do anything about except feel powerless against?

Brian stopped mining and thought about that last question. _Wasn't that the fun of Terraria?_

Suddenly, he felt a sensation of thrill engulf his entire body. He felt like he was about to be set ablaze, his heart thundered in his chest. He broke a smile onto his face. Wondering if his heart was about to burst asunder, he quickly started to mine with a quickened pace; bits and pieces of knowledge he embedded into his memory surfacing slowly back up, re-piecing together the archive he built in his mind so he didn't have to keep tabbing out of the game to look up on the wiki. What he needed to know now, he probably could get from himself. Although this time around, his Guide was actually pleasant, and he didn't even open the door to a single zombie through the night!

At this, Brian started to chuckle to himself, a sense of arrogance slowly washing into him, like a tidal wave steadily rising, understanding that all he has to do is "beat" this world, and he could stand atop of it. _This would be fun,_ Brian thought to himself.

At this point, the hole that was the surface had dissipated since he had mined horizontally once his pace quickened, and came across huge pools of iron and lead. After mining all of this, a fierce smile appeared on his face, visible only by the torch light that he had just placed next to him.

"Right now, I'm just a cockroach in the eyes of the Moon Lord, no, even the Slime King! But just like all the other times…" Looking at the amount of iron and lead he had in hand, he knew he could easily make a full set of armor as well as a sword and pickaxe, "I will work my way up to the level of _Gods_!" Brian laughed to himself, now drunk in his arrogance of knowledge.

He felt ready. He _was_ ready.

 _~Alright, well, those were the chapters I made last night (March 20). The way I'm going to do this, most likely, is a burst upload weekly. For example, I do a few chapters whenever I can through the week, then I upload them all up on Sunday/Monday/Tuesday. Deal? Love ya guys if you read this and enjoyed it so far!~_


	5. Chapter 5: The Orbs

Chapter 5: The Orbs

"You've been in for the tenth time now since I came here only a few days ago, Brian. Just what are you doing these days?"

Brian, laying on the bed, sighed and chuckled at the same time, "I'm trying to figure out how to get down the schisms of the Cor- of the Infestation, but every time I get even a little bit of progress, I end up having to repel the monsters away… Honestly, here I thought the armor I had and the weapons with me would be decent enough to keep it simple for me…"

Brian sat up from the bed, feeling that he had been fully bandaged, and otherwise was healthy. He looked around the room, that was in conjunction to the main house he had built the first day; it was made of wood, since he had used the stone he mined to create winding staircases down to the bottom of the Corruption. But as he said before, the Eater of Souls show up every time he even gets near the area. He has yet to die, but because of a severe lack of healing potions, he had to keep coming back to his nurse, Lisa. He then glanced over to Lisa, which in turn, he instantly admired her perkiness and beauty that he had rarely seen in his previous life.

 _Just the nurse…. Just the nurse…_

"Whatever it is you're doing, just walk it off; you'll be fine."

Brian stared at Lisa without emotion or thought, then sighed with resignation in his heart, _Yep, definitely just the nurse…_

At his sigh, Lisa frowned, creasing her eyebrows and staring with a bit of discontent in her blue eyes.

After a few moments with Brian's eyes closed, he stood up, and went to the other side of the room, where a mannequin was placed, not by Brian or Lisa, but by Andrew. On this mannequin, was the armor that Brian had crafted barely less than three days ago. When he had crafted it, it shone brilliantly, with yellow blazes and trails along the general armor, and it shone with a luminosity that could cause jealousy within the stars themselves.

But after the last few days, Brian had been smacked around by the Eaters, and even Devourers had risen out of the land beneath him to attack him. Lately, he had gotten accustomed to gripping to the staff of emerald he had crafted just prior to the silver armor, and when he was finally within the schism, the sound of metal armor clinking onto the hilt of a sword was not an uncommon noise.

As a result of these days that have followed the silver set's creation, there were deep gashes and scratch marks across most of the chest plate. The helmet itself covered Brian's face entirely, and was also covered in dried purple-ish blood from him spilling it out of the Eaters or Devourers. But despite the somewhat gruel picture laid before him, Brian could only smile, pondering about the extent of the experiences he had gone through thus far. To him, seeing this armor no longer polished and in pristine condition allowed him to feel a sense of reality to this world, as well as know that he's progressing.

Besides, it's not like he's going to be wearing that armor for the rest of his life.

Brian walked to the mannequin and put on his boots and breastplate, holding the helmet within his armpit when he turned around to Lisa and thanked her for her support, before heading out and into the main chamber.

As of now, after roughly 8-10 days, the "base of operations", as Andrew repeatedly called it, had grown to be a handful of inhabitant. Obviously, the inhabitants included Brian, Andrew, and the nurse, Lisa. The other that had come was just like the NPC he had remembered of back in the game, except them being an interesting mix of the merchant and traveling merchant, as he traveled to and from wherever Brian and company were to elsewhere to get his items to sell. Not that Brian cared where he went off to, as his items were useless to him until he could get the Arms Dealer to arrive, which required Brian searching for a Shadow Orb in the Corruption, and shatter it. Without the Arms Dealer, guns wouldn't be "available," and the progression of the "game" would slow to a near halt until he otherwise does.

Dejected from the reality of his fate if he doesn't find a Shadow Orb, he slouched his shoulders, causing the armor to creak against itself. Andrew saw this scene, and simply smiled bitterly upon this sight, but said nothing.

After a few moments like that, Brian shook his resignation off, and walked out of the base and towards the Corruption to the north.

Walking to and back from the Corruption has given Brian more time to think than he could handle to himself. He had started pondering on what he could if he continued to be stuck in this cycle forever. He knew almost as a fact that chests didn't exist in the current places he had explored, which only left the possible Dungeon somewhere out in the desert, as well as the Underworld, if he ever reached there. This posed a serious and grave problem to himself as no chests in the normal biomes would nearly extinguish any chance of a Magic Mirror surfacing for him to take, which would essentially allow him to teleport back home at ease, significantly increasing his ability to take more risks. But alas, he understood that for now, he would have to bide, and play cautiously.

Another thing he thought about was what if he died, accidentally or otherwise…

Before jumping into that train of thought, he realized that he had already reached the Corruption's border with the snow biome. With this, he sighed, shook off his thoughts, and gripped his staff while retaining the highest alert he could muster.

When he first came, he had been wearing the very same armor he is now, but dazzling and polished. He had carelessly assumed he could abolish any monsters he came into contact with. But as he wielded his heavy silver sword, he came to learn in a painful way that this would not be the case. Each fight was grueling and difficult, forcing him to have to take a breath before doing anything else, and then resuming forward in his progress down the schism, until another monster made its target clear.

Having already lost count of how many Eaters or Devourers he had slain, he scanned the area, only to see that there were very few things around; none of which were his monsters he was wary of.

 _Hm, perhaps this will be my lucky day then!_

Smiling slyly underneath his armor, Brian jogged over to the schism he had gone to in his previous times, and began his descent. It was at this point, that Brian swapped from his Emerald Staff to resting a hand with readiness on the hilt of his silver sword. But going further down, he sensed nothing nearby, and could ascertain that this was the first time he had gone this far without a single fight. Perplexed, Brian slowed his pace until he got to the last bit of his staircase he made, looked at a it for a bit, then proceeded to build further down until he made it to the floor of the schism.

Seeing nothing around, Brian was almost taken aback until he reminded himself that it was pitch black where he was, and pulled out a torch, revealing a gargantuan cavern that stretched all the way around him until even the light faded, revealing no walls or of the likes. Despite the size of the cavern, Brian was aware of the chasms in this cavern that, if he were to fail to see them, could lead to a death more painful than the average fall, only because of the shock of it as well as the utter despair to experience. Due to those things, Brian almost didn't dare to walk away from where he was, but eventually, he took the first step in no particular direction, and proceeded forward.

A few minutes had passed before he finally heard the first low sickly purr since he had come to the Corruption. With this, Brian contemplated within seconds what weapon to use, and decided on the Emerald Staff. He whirled it out, and directed the gem towards the Eater of Soul, and focused his mana into the staff, and with a hum, a green energy crystal whizzed towards the Eater, hitting it, and piercing it through, allowing it only to shriek upon its death.

As the green light faded away, the cavern momentarily became dark until Brian took out a torch again and proceeded onward, feeling indifferent to what had just occurred. The sound of metallic footsteps rang for a long distance around him as he walked, until finally, he stopped at an unfamiliar sound.

Hearing this sound, Brian gripped his staff resting on his back, trying to identify the loud pop he had heard in the general direction he had been walking in. After a few moments, he slowly started to walk again, but this time, waiting for the sound to be made again; and after a few minutes, he did hear it again.

This time, it was much closer, and the pop was followed by something that sounded like there was something falling, as though someone dumped thousands of shards of glass onto the ground. Brian became perplexed, but also curious at this point, and sped up his pace. Eventually, he began to notice a faint purple aura emanating through the caverns, and as he kept walking, the aura got steadily stronger, until he could almost see with the light, as well as standing next to a floating purple orb that had nearly appeared out of nowhere for him.

 _… A Shadow Orb?!_

Slightly dumbfounded, he wasn't prepared to see a Shadow Orb on this level of the Corruption, as they were usually in the chasms below. However, he wasn't willing to nitpick his good fortune, and cried out, "Such luck!"

Brian pulled off his staff so he could grab the hammer resting underneath it, and pulled it up and out for him to use, setting the staff back on his back. The wooden hammer resting in his hand was one of his first creations, and despite this, it still looked just as though he had made it yesterday. The handling of it was a bit dirty as the weight of the hammer gives the feeling of it wanting to swing even if Brian hasn't swung it yet.

In this case, however, it mattered little to him about the handling of the hammer. He frankly crafted it specifically for this moment, to shatter an Orb and gain progress. He lifted the hammer above his head, steadying his posture, making sure the hammer wouldn't swing behind him, and thus tipping him over in imbalance.

 _Such a troublesome hammer…_

He readied himself now that it was above his head, and swung the hammer, creating a loud pop like he heard before, except this time, he saw and heard every bit of glass shatter from fragments into almost dust. Before him, the Orb popped almost like a bubble, revealing the weapon he had been doing this for, which was the musket. However, much to his surprise, he saw more than just the musket.

What had fallen to his feet was the musket, a ring, and two other weapons he had somewhat of a vague recollection of. The first of the two was a green-grey stick that had a spear like tip to it, but judging from the material, Brian could guess it was only a magic weapon, if even that. He shifted his gaze to the other weapon, which seemed like a spiked ball attached to a handle and looked as though it could be swung. Swimming through his memories, Brian could vaguely recall the spear-like weapon he had before him, which was the Vilethorn. However, he was still at a blank with the spiked ball weapon.

Before giving any more thought to it, he heard a multitude of screams echoing around him. At first it was faint, but it steadily grew to be like a huge tidal wave washing over him in wails and screams that made him feel as though he would go deaf.

"Guh!" Brian could barely take any more of this screaming, but even so, he did subtly take notice that the cavern begun shaking violently.

 _Is this really what I think it is…?_ Almost subdued by the screams, he barely managed to emit that one thought within his brain, and when he did, the screams faded out, almost like a candle blowing out from a puff of air. Realizing he had been suffocating, Brian gasped for air, and then regained himself.

He steadied himself, and took notice, once again, that the cavern was shaking, and he could hear a very distant roar. However, he had the gut instinct telling him that the roar would be coming closer and closer, and very soon, on top of him.

 _Crap… This is way too soon!_

Brian was painfully aware of what was going on, and he knew that it was not a good idea to still be standing where he was, and so he ran off towards the winding staircase he created. The entire world around him was shaking now, and when he looked up through the schism to see the sky above, he was almost grateful entirely that it was day time, so much so that the light filtered down to where he was standing, at the base of the staircase. But this majestic view would have to wait, as the roar of an untamable had been steadily growing louder, closing in on Brian's position.

Almost skipping a heartbeat, he immediately bolted up the staircase, forcing his legs to run as fast as he could. He wasn't sure if he was imagining it or not, but it felt almost as if his staircase was slowly dissolving as he took each step, the tremors of the earth weakening the stone he had once put faith into. He dared not to look back however, focusing on getting out onto the surface. He didn't even have to think about the consequences of standing within the schism.

The roars now were reaching a volume that Brian was sure should've blown out his hearing. However, disregarding such a trivial matter, Brian was almost to the top of the staircase, starting to see the barren wasteland of purple spreading out before him. It was at this point that he heard his staircase beginning to collapse.

"Shit!" He cried out as he had only a few more steps to go.

He could hear the staircase below him crumbling down, and he felt the sturdiness of the steps he was on diminishing. Brian panted as he took the final five steps as too much of a risk. He jumped up to the ledge, and at that moment, the staircase he had been on had completely vanished from underneath him and was falling to the bottom of the schism.

The leap was just a little short, but even so, Brian grinded his teeth as he tried to somehow will himself to reach the ledge, reaching out with even just his fingers.

He missed. Feeling this truth wash over him gave him the feeling of fear. _True_ fear.

 _Is this how I will die?_ The roars have now become unbearable, the earth shaking as though it would split all the way to the underworld. But it almost didn't matter to Brian, as he had started to fall from his jump. Closing his eyes, Brian was about to think about his final moments when something completely unexpected happened.

A hand reached out for Brian's extended one that tried to grab the ledge, successfully grappling it and suspending Brian from falling. He opened his eyes in pure disbelief, and looked up towards the person whom he owed for doing this. But he almost had his breath taken away all over again.

The person before him was wearing a pure gold set of armor, which shone brilliantly in the sun. Unlike his silver armor, however, the gold helmet did not cover the face of his savior. And in this case, all he could discern was the emerald green eyes she held with a fierce gaze in them. And how did he know it was a "she"? Her voice.

"So it was _you_ who destroyed the third orb, for crying out loud… Why did you have to do that?!" Her voice wasn't shrill, but it was hard for Brian to get past the somewhat high pitched voice.

Nevertheless, he was still dumbstruck by the fact he was saved, but then the roar that sounded almost right below him snapped him out of it, "Enough about that, we have the Eater of Worlds right below us! Pull me up, we need to get away from the Corruption!"

The gold armored girl pulled up Brian, but then folded her arms and scolded him, "Why would we leave now? Since it's been summoned, we may as well try to defeat it. Hmph!"

At the last word, she looked away in an annoyed manner, which only served to make Brian perplexed.

 _Such a character exists…?_

But before going any further, ground shook one last time with such a violent magnitude, that some of the trees felled simply because of it, to say nothing of the duo that has now been knocked onto the ground.

Brian knew it was probably too late to run away, and who knew if the rules of the game would apply to the behemoth they would soon face, such as de-spawning once you left the Corruption.

 _Then there is no choice…_

Brian sighed, "Fine. I sure hope you have healing potions for yourself, because you're going to take the brunt of its attacks."

The girl looked back and stomped her foot, "Why is that?"

Brian smirked as he pulled out his staff, displaying it to the girl, "Because I am a Mage."

At first, the girl looked a little awe-struck, then laughed, "Yeah? Well…" She pulled out her weapon, which was a musket, "I'm a Ranger."

Widening his blue eyes behind the silver helmet, he was at a loss of words.

The girl nodded her head quickly, "Yep, that means we're _both_ going to be trying not to take hits."

Brian cursed under his breath. But there wasn't any time left. The ground had stayed silent for just a moment, before the roars resonated through the schism without any inhibitors, the roars themselves causing almost as much of a tremor as the movements of this monster through the earth. The sickly appearance of this gigantic worm was enhanced by the multitudes of eyes that laid on its head and body, the pincers it had were essentially those on the Eater of Souls, but bigger, and nastier.

The Eater of Worlds has awoken.

~ _I am SO sorry for not uploading at ALL lately, I was trying to figure out how to continue the story, since I had like four or five different ways of introducing the girl. But nevertheless, I have no excuses for my sorry existence. I hope the excessive burst of chapters throughout today will help make at least some amends!~_


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